A comparative study of pure and potassium doped cadmium mercury thiocyanate single crystals grown in silica gel

Pure and potassium doped cadmium mercury thiocyanate single crystals have been obtained from silica gel by the process of diffusion. The X‐ray diffraction studies reveal the crystal lattice of both pure and doped crystals to be tetragonal. The crystalline perfection of the grown crystals were investigated by high resolution X‐ray diffraction analysis and the quality of the crystals are found to be extremely good. Transmission and Fourier transform infrared spectra were recorded for the grown crystals. The TG/DTA analyses show that the crystals are highly thermally stable. The mechanical strength of the crystals were studied by Vickers microhardness test and a study of their second harmonic generation efficiency in comparison with urea has been made by performing Kurtz powder test. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)